Since CA 428, my columns have focused on prehistoric Britain, and while researching these I read about a series of mines dating to the Neolithic and/or Bronze Age. This is a fascinating rabbit-hole to climb into, and next month I will follow it with an exploration of medieval and modern mines. For those of you interested in this subject, there have been wider surveys of early mining in CA 117 (November 1989), CA 352 (July 2019), and CA 384 (March 2022); of metallurgy in CA 99 (February 1986) and CA 335 (February 2018); and of flint mining in CA 175 (August 2001) and CA 178 (March 2002).
ALDERLEY EDGE, CHESHIRE
Alderley Edge, just to the north-west of Macclesfield, is nowadays best known as a haunt of the rich and famous, especially Premier League footballers. In prehistory, though, it was the home of a different class of elites: copper miners. Current Archaeology first visited the site in issue 137 (February 1994), telling the remarkable tale of a wooden shovel that had been found there in 1878, was rediscovered in a local school in 1953, then spent the next 40 years in the care of local author Alan Garner, until it was finally radiocarbon dated in 1992. This analysis placed the shovel in 3470 BC (±90 years) – during the first half of the 2nd millennium BC, the Middle Bronze Age – and its serendipitous survival provided something that had previously eluded archaeology: a confirmed date for the presence of prehistoric miners at Alderley Edge. CA 238 (January 2010) told the full story of this fascinating site and of work since the 1990s to uncover its secrets, and CA 315 (June 2016) followed up on that report at the time of the conclusion of the long-running Alderley Edge Landscape Project.
GREAT ORME, LLANDUDNO
CA 130 (August 1992) first reported on fieldwork at Great Orme near Llandudno in North Wales, telling a story similar to that at Alderley: of 19th-century miners breaking through into earlier workings and their finds being reported by antiquarians at the time but then forgotten, only to be re-examined from the 1980s onwards when radiocarbon dating provided concrete evidence of their antiquity. Since that time, as at Alderley, sustained fieldwork at Great Orme has demonstrated the scale and extent of prehistoric mining, with tunnels running over 300m into the rock and 70m down, across ten levels. CA 181 (September 2002) continued this story after a further decade of discovery, including a series of radiocarbon dates ranging between 1600 BC and 1200 BC across a vastly greater area than first imagined, with over 6km (3.7 miles) of passages explored and as many again awaiting examination. More recently, CA 359 (February 2020) and CA 385 (April 2022) demonstrated not only how big the mines at Great Orme were, but also how widely their outputs travelled. Scientific analyses have identified a unique chemical- and isotopic-fingerprint for the site’s copper that can be matched against databases of British and European Bronze Age artefacts. This research shows that the mine dominated Britain’s copper supply for over 200 years (c.1600-1400 BC), with objects made from its metal travelling across continental Europe, from modern-day France and the Netherlands to as far away as Sweden.
GRIME’S GRAVES, NORFOLK
Of all the mines mentioned in this column, Grime’s Graves, near Thetford, is likely to be the best known. Current Archaeology first visited the site in issue 46 (September 1974), at the time of a new exhibition and, as CA 56 (May 1976) explained, the flint mined from this location is only part of the equation: what of the miners? The British Museum had led fieldwork at the site over the course of five years to find out more about them, but this work had mixed success – no ‘miners’ village’ was identified, but plentiful other data was gathered regarding the mine’s phasing, commencing in the late Neolithic with radiocarbon dates focused around 2000-1800 BC. More recently, CA 327 (June 2017) and CA 412 (July 2024) reported on new fieldwork that picks up on a consistent theme of this month’s column: previous generations having under-estimated the scale and extent of prehistoric mining, whereas newer examinations demonstrate just how much was achieved. At Grime’s Graves, for example, 433 individual mine shafts covering an area of 7.6ha (18.8 acres) have been firmly identified, with their full extent probably double this number and area.
CISSBURY RING AND BLACKPATCH HILL, WEST SUSSEX
Cissbury Ring and Blackpatch Hill in West Sussex are two adjacent Neolithic flint mines on the South Downs, north of Worthing; their first mention in the magazine comes in CA 57 (July 1977), as part of a review of the stone-axe trade in prehistoric Britain. Cissbury is a site with a complicated history: it is better known for its Iron Age defences than its Neolithic mines. Only in CA 389 (August 2022) did the magazine pay a sustained visit, with new research at that time revealing evidence for some 270 individual mine-shafts opened over a 500-year period that focused around c.4000 BC. They demonstrate the switch that took place during this period, from open-cast flint quarrying to shaft mining, which required more effort but produced flint of a higher quality. Also worth reading is CA 379 (October 2021), which tells the story of local archaeologist John Pull who, sadly, did not receive the credit he was due in his lifetime for enhancing our understanding of these special places.
DOWN FARM, CRANBORNE CHASE, DORSET
While John Pull was unfairly marginalised during his career, thankfully the same is not true of Martin Green, the excavator of the last mine that I will mention in this column: Down Farm on Cranborne Chase in Dorset. CA 67 (June 1979) was the first issue to feature this site, but the magazine has paid visits over the years in CA 138 (April 1994), CA 169 (August 2000), and CA 279 (June 2013). The Green family have farmed there since the 1930s, and Martin has built up an incredible array of knowledge about the area, alongside what is arguably the finest private museum in Britain. The site’s archaeological record is complex, with rich evidence of Bronze Age settlement, but as fieldwork evolved over the 1980s, an earlier, Neolithic history became apparent, with a henge associated with the huge Dorset cursus that runs partly across the farm. It was CA 169 that first broke the news of the flint mine there, when Martin examined a pit full of Neolithic material that went down, and down, and down. The excavation took it to a depth of 13m (43ft) but augering indicated that it went further, to at least 25m (82ft). Copious finds were radiocarbon dated to 4500-2000 BC, indicating that the main rubble fill of the shaft had accumulated between 4400 BC and 4160 BC. This work also identified Mesolithic activity, the hypothesis being that the shaft began as a natural feature that was later enlarged by humans.
Alderley Edge and Cissbury Ring are in the care of the National Trust, see www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/cheshire-greater-manchester/alderley-edge-and-cheshire-countryside and www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/sussex/cissbury-ring. Great Orme is regularly open to the public as well, see www.greatormemines.info; so too is Grime’s Graves, see www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/grimes-graves-prehistoric-flint-mine. Blackpatch Hill is accessible from the South Downs Way, see www.walkingbritain.co.uk/walk-1667-description. Down Farm is on private land, but with tours periodically arranged by Salisbury Museum, see www.salisburymuseum.org.uk.
